How To Start Honda ATV Without A Key?

You might have lost the key if you are looking for ways to start your Honda ATV without using the actual key. Not being able to find the key to your all-terrain vehicle can be quite intimidating. If it happens to you on a desolate trail, you might also feel many negative emotions.

Many people ride in a group, and if that’s the case with you, then at least you can get immediate moral support and an extra pair of eyes searching for your key among the rocks or the sand.

This has occurred many times when the rider couldn’t find the ATV key even after hours of intensive searching. But there remains more than a single way to get your ATV started, even without the application of the key.

Knowing and learning the techniques of starting your Honda ATV without the key becomes very useful in cumbersome situations and doesn’t allow panic to settle in.

Not only for yourself, but you can also help out a fellow rider who might be stuck on a scary trail even after sunset. There is a lot to know about an all-terrain vehicle except knowing how to ride it, and the knowledge about the components inside makes you understand the vehicle better.

Not every trick of starting the ATV without the key might apply to your Honda model, but knowing at least three will let you start the ATV by bypassing or reconnection.

Although you might visit a mechanic later on, the self-applying trick would be enough to get out the trail or set off into a crucial off-road plan with your buddies.

Using a wrench to cross the relay starter or solenoid

In this process, you need to open up the engine space and find the solenoid near the engine and the starter relay.

Specifically, you need to check the battery portion near the wire gatherings. In there, you will find the solenoid. The solenoids do have varying shapes and sizes, but most Honda ATVs have a specific circular shape.

The round-shaped solenoid will have around four wires, among which two wires will be thinner and two will be much larger. The solenoid aims to control the low ampere and high ampere loads. Some ATVs also have a solenoid with only three wires.

The single smaller wire is present when the ground is being taken from the frame. The solenoid can sometimes also be present in a rubber and plastic cover, but mostly in Honda ATVs, it’s on the outside.

Now, the main work you need to get done is with the two big wires stretching out from the solenoid and leaving the smaller wire as it is. Cut these wires open one by one, then use a wrench to jump among these wires. Use black tape for insulation at the winding spots mainly.

Keep the wrench connected, and then the ATV will start; you can ride to your home or the garage for better ignition switch repair.

Removing the ignition for manual starting

This ATV starting process takes place by removing the ignition switch. So, after you apply this technique, you should be able to replace the old ignition or would require a new ignition switch to be installed in the Honda ATV.

This process involves bypassing the ignition switch and following the sparking up to get the Honda ATV started like the key would have. The process in detail to manually starts as follows:

• When you remove the front ATV protector and check the ignition, you can witness the cylinder-like ignition, which can be divided into two different pieces.
• You need to take off the lower part of the cylinder, which you will find to remain connected to the cable stretching to the engine of your Honda ATV.
• If you check inside the remaining part of the cylinder, you will find a part with metal connectors attached. You need to remove this part from the ignition. Take the help of screwdrivers if you need to loosen it out of the cylinder.
• Study the metal connector piece you just removed and tally it with the other connectors present in the other part of the engine, and determine the exact connections between the metal connectors.
• After lining up the metal connectors, you can start the ATV even with the key. Leave the connections in the exact position and try not to let them start to die out. Replace the front cover of the ATV and ride out to a safe spot.

The hack with a screwdriver and long scissors use

Many riders are not comfortable with their hands over the Honda ATV engine and fear they would get the engine connections and other essential components like the solenoid or the crankshaft completely damaged and not get their ATV started at all. Most riders have a screwdriver or a pair of long scissors with their ATVs.

This tool can help you get the Honda ATV started if you are stuck on a barren trail and have no other way to start the ATV except using a tough hack.

This technique is only advised if you are not able to apply any other trick or it has failed to work out. Otherwise,e this trick should be treated as the last option because it can get the ignition switch totally damaged.

If you are not able to find the key in your home while the ATV still stands in the garage, it is best to use any other trick or call the mechanic.

First, remove any object from the ignition switch surface. If you have already put them in the exact position of the ignition switch opening, put them in the screwdriver with great force.

Just after it touches the bottom or reaches the maximum extent, swing the screwdriver in the exact direction you would have rotated the key.

Your Honda ATV should start after this. If you are using long scissors instead, do the same process with just one hand of the scissors. When using scissors, be extra careful and don’t get yourself cut.

FAQs

Conclusion

Losing the key to your Honda ATV can lead to loads of anxiety if you have removed it from the ignition port in the middle of woods or dunes and cannot find it anywhere.

Often, experts suggest not removing your ATV key from the port or keeping an extra pair of keys somewhere in the ATV deck or your pockets.

There are ways in which you can get your ATV started even without the key. But executing the process in the middle of a barren trail for the first time can be very difficult.

The user should apply the trick once or twice back at home while the key is still there so that they can execute it well in an isolated terrain with minimum light. The solenoid trick is considered one of the easiest among all the ATV’s tricks.